The Congressional Budget Office released the Monthly Budget Review on Friday, in which they reported the federal budget deficit for the first quarter of 2006 as being $119 billion. This figure is fairly close to the shortfall seen in the first quarter last year.

Increased spending in the wake of the hurricanes was responsible for some of the deficit, however those outlays were countered by somewhat high corporate tax receipts. Most corporations make their quarterly corporate income tax payments in December, which makes it a good month for the federal budget.